BIG NEWS: Google Is Working On Nuclear Fusion Tech With Its New Computer Algorithm

Image: Tri Alpha Energy

Short Bytes: Google is partnering with a nuclear fusion company named Tri Alpha Energy. Together, they’ve developed a computer algorithm to speed up the fusion research process and improve plasma generation. While they are yet to achieve any breakthrough, they’ve achieved a 50% reduction in energy losses. It should also be noted that Tri Alpha Energy is backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Just in case you were getting disheartened by the fact that Google hasn’t revealed any exciting moonshot projects in the recent time, I have got a great news for you. Not exactly a moonshot, Google is partnering with a leading nuclear fusion company to work on this clean energy technology.

By partnering with the fusion company Tri Alpha Energy, Google has created a computer algorithm to speed up experiments on plasma, which is the key ingredient in this technology. For those who don’t know, Tri Alpha Energy is backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and it has raised $500 million in investment.

The algorithm which has been developed as a result of this partnership is called Optometrist algorithm. It aims to combine high-powered computation with human judgement for finding novel and improved solutions to complex problems.

In the video shown below, you can see how plasma is generated more efficiently:

As reported by The Guardian, Ted Baltz of Google Accelerated Science Team says that dealing with nuclear fusion is even beyond the capacity of Google-level resources. So, it becomes even more important to combine computer learning approaches with human understanding.

With the help of Google, Tri Alpha Energy’s C2-U machine has shown faster progress. The operations that took a month were shrunk to a few hours. The combined effort also achieved a 50% reduction in energy losses.

The company has now replaced C2-U machine with a more powerful machine named Norman, which achieved its first plasma in July.